The Bootleg Files: The Weird Adventures of Mutt & Jeff and Bugoff

Posted on October 20, 2023 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 845: “The Weird Adventures of Mutt & Jeff and Bugoff” (1973 animated feature).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube and Archive.org.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: The rights holder will not make it available.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely.

Leo Tolstoy’s opened his novel Anna Karenina with the extraordinary observation: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” A similar consideration can be applied to movies: “Good movies are all alike; every bad movie is bad in its own way.”
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The Bootleg Files: Oceans of Love

Posted on September 29, 2023 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 843: “Oceans of Love” (1956 animated short from the Terrytoons studio).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: The rights holder will not make it available.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely.

Cartoon lovers of a certain age will recall the glory days of Terrytoons, an animation studio founded by Paul Terry that specialized in cartoon shorts that were usually lacking in artistic genius but more than compensated with good silly fun. Terry himself acknowledged his studio’s shortcomings regarding its low-budget animation, once describing Walt Disney’s operation as the “Tiffany’s in this business” while his was “the Woolworth’s.”
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The Bootleg Files: Courtin’ an’ a Snortin’

Posted on July 21, 2023 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 837: “Courtin’ an’ a Snortin’” (1960 animated short starring The Three Dogeteers).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Long forgotten short film that fell through the proverbial cracks.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Yes, it is coming out on DVD, incredibly.

Researching obscure films can be a challenge, but there is always the reward that comes when hitherto unknown facts are unearthed about a cinematic curiosity. This week, however, we have a film that could qualify as being among the most mysterious productions of all time, as there is nothing that is easily accessible to determine its origins.
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The Bootleg Files: Vom Bäumlein, Das Andere Blätter Hat Gewollt

Posted on April 21, 2023 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 829: “Vom Bäumlein, Das Andere Blätter Hat Gewollt” (1940 animated short made in Nazi Germany).

LAST SEEN: On the Internet Archive and on YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: No sane U.S. label is going to put it into home entertainment release.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Nein.

The filmmakers of Nazi Germany were pathetically jealous of their counterparts in Hollywood. After all, the German cinema suffered a creative brain drain after Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, with the greatest talents leaving for other countries while significantly inferior pro-Nazi talents remained behind.
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The Bootleg Files: See Ya Later Gladiator

Posted on April 14, 2023 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 828: “See Ya Later Gladiator” (1968 animated short with Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzalez).

LAST SEEN: On DailyMotion.com.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It seems to have fallen through the proverbial cracks.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely at the moment.

Fans of the Looney Tunes animation series will probably wince upon learning which film is in the spotlight in this column. “See Ya La Gladiator” has the sad distinction of being the last (and perhaps the least) of the theatrically produced Looney Tunes animated shorts featuring the classic-era characters – in this case, the severely mismatched pair of Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzales.
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Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (2022)

Posted on December 18, 2022 by Phil Hall

The Walt Disney Co. hasn’t done very much since it acquired the trademark to the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit character in 2006 – for those unfamiliar with the back story, Walt Disney created Oswald for Universal Pictures in 1927 and made 27 silent black-and-white shorts. But Disney lost the rights to the character, at which point he created a new character called Mickey Mouse.
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The Bootleg Files: Hokey Wolf

Posted on July 1, 2022 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 806: “Hokey Wolf” (a short series of Hanna-Barbera cartoons from 1960-1961).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: Two episodes were included in a DVD release.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It fell through the cracks.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Probably not.

During the early 1960s, the Hanna-Barbera animation studio flooded television viewers with a surplus amount of cartoon mischief that quickly became incorporated into the popular culture. Creations including Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, The Flintstones, Top Cat and The Jetsons gained instant iconic status.
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The Bootleg Files: Wacky Wigwams

Posted on June 10, 2022 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 804: “Wacky Wigwams” (1942 animated short).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It fell through the cracks.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Probably not.

Unless you are a die-hard animation aficionado, there’s an excellent chance that you are unfamiliar with the output of Columbia Pictures’ Screen Gems animation studio in the 1930s and 1940s. Truth be told, their films were never as invigorating or innovative as those from the major Hollywood animation studios of the time, and their obscurity was compounded by not being part of the television rerun culture that ensured cult status for the Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation.
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